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Wednesday Night Sick Funk: Mark Lettieri on the "Leonardo" Baritone Guitar

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Yeah Sure WhatEVs8/09/2018 7:27:47 am PDT

Manafort trial day 8 link.

10:01 a.m.: Judge Ellis begins court with mea culpa for outburst over expert

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has raked prosecutors from the special counsel’s office over the coals for the past week and a half. But on Thursday, he backed down, telling jurors to ignore one piece of criticism.

“I was critical of counsel for … allowing an expert to remain in the courtroom,” he said before testimony began. “You may put that aside… I may well have been wrong.”

On Wednesday, Ellis scolded prosecutors for calling an IRS expert who has sat through the trial in the gallery. Prosecutors filed a motion Thursday morning pointing out that the transcript backed up their understanding that Ellis had explicitly allowed the expert to do so.

“The Court’s sharp reprimand of government counsel in front of the jury on August 8was therefore erroneous,” the prosecutors wrote. “And, while mistakes are a natural part of the trial process, the mistake here prejudiced the government by conveying to the jury that the government had acted improperly and had violated court rules or procedures. The exchange could very well lead the jury to reach two erroneous inferences: (a) that Mr. Welch’s testimony is not credible because he was improperly privy to the testimony of other witnesses, and (b) that the government sought to secure an unfair advantage by secreting its expert in the courtroom without permission…This prejudice should be cured.”

Ellis said Thursday that he had not actually read the transcript, which was attached to the government motion.

But, the judge said, “I was probably wrong.”

He added that he makes mistakes, “like any human — and this robe doesn’t make me any more than a human.”

He concluded, “Any criticism of counsel should be put aside — it doesn’t have anything to do with this case.”